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daisyswift3 · 7 days

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KAYLORS I JUST DECIPHERED THE PR MESSAGES FROM PRESENT 🎁 ANON AND AM NOW VERY CERTAIN THEY’RE LEGIT TOO. So we started receiving these very interesting anon messages exactly 2 months before the release of TTPD (release was 4/19)

We were told to keep our eyes peeled for a present or gift we would be receiving and well we got it

There are P's and R's repeated in the messages. "The hint is in the words." P = PETER. R = ROBIN. Those songs are a gift to us kaylors. They're separated by just one song, the Bolter (which I'm 99% sure is related to the 8th 🎃 message bc Taylor almost drowns and a bolter is a coward which was the main point of the message); and Taylor mentions CPR in So Long, London which means they're all related. Bc Cassandra = Taylor, Peter = her second kid, Robin, = her first kid. They're related bc they're a family. I think it's possible those are the actual names of her two kids

"This is not the manuscript" i.e. the manuscript (closing track) is not the gift, it's the songs right before it! Robin is the 2nd to last song, Peter the 4th to last, and Cassandra the 5th to last. "It has been hidden well, look where the above may find you." They can be found in the track titles themselves. "Plausible deniability. Think of the one we continue to revisit"--K and T have plausible deniability since everyone thinks those are JK's kids. BUT "the volcano will soon rupture, whoever is to defame" which means that one day all the truth will come spilling out regardless of the defamation that will happen. "Restful, reticent, restraint. And PUBLISH!"--perhaps a tell-all memoir??

"The predecessor was the crumb" in other words peace "I'd give you my wild, give you a child" (see this post) was just a faint hint but now she's getting really close to revealing everything which is what the volcano 🌋 represents! THE DANDELIONS IN THE ROBIN LYRIC VID. Robin is the single dandelion floret (secret) she was so worried abt sending into someone else’s yard in the 7th 🎃 message (see this post). She was afraid that sending this song out into the world could expose the truth she’s worked so hard to protect before she’s ready but she did it anyway. “Once you blow a dandelion, you never get it back. It isn’t yours anymore.” “But the story isn’t mine anymore.” 🎃 mentions how the recipient of the dandelion would also blow and spread the florets which might mean kaylors would catch on and spread the secret. The 8th message also mentions a dandelion that the enemy has and spreads but I’m not yet sure who this person is—also this person could be the “recipient” and not kaylors but I’m not sure. And I’m not sure if this means they’d like us to kinda keep this to ourselves and not use Robin as a gotcha since it’s meant to be more of a seed planted for future use (no pun intended). But it definitely seems like they aren’t ready to reveal everything just yet

"As the neighbor holds the lamp to witness her Goodbye" = "Now you're in my backyard turned into good neighbors" and "But the woman who sits by the window has turned out the light"

"Reach those lanterns a little bit higher for you shall receive a metaphor so dire"--a jack-o-lantern like pumpkin anon? These metaphorical messages will help us to understand K and T's entire complicated situation?

"When I cannot see words curling like rings of smoke round me"--"breath of fresh air through smoke rings." Haven't quite figured out what this part means yet but it reminds me of blowing smoke which means to deliberately confuse or deceive (lavender haze mv)

This is as far as I've gotten w decoding the messages. This all adds a lot of context to those 🎃 messages and makes them a little more clear. There’s definitely more clues in there we have yet to decipher so pls share your thoughts

#robin #pumpkin #present anon #peter #volcano #dandelions

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writergeekrhw · 5 months

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I just want to offer an alternative take on Kira’s behaviours being queer coded (Is it the short hair? The anger? I don’t know what people mean tbh, sounds… stereotypical and rude to queer women tbh), I never got those vibes as a young person watching her, never would have occurred to me at the time. I’m not judging I just have a very different view the character let me explain.

What I did get from her was that she was young and female and religious and angry and she was ALLOWED to be all those things. And I was ALL those things too, and it meant, and still does mean, the world to me that she was like that but ALSO competent and respected and loveable even though she was so, so angry, frustrated, and DONE at the injustice in her life. I (also some close friends) was going though some dark times myself when I was young, and Kira was a beacon of hope. And as she grew in her character arcs, and faced her own prejudices from Marritza to everything else, to me that was saying you can do it. If Kira can do it, can look her shitty past in the eye and say I will break this cycle and do better and unlearn and grow, you can do it too. Back to dark stuff and queer coding - I’ve seen people blast Kira getting more “feminine” (again, what? The hair? Softer personality? She learned to be gracious, is that so bad? Angry redhead stereotypes aren’t great) over time as bad and anti-queer, but to this young person it was… sometimes young women go through things at the hands of oppressors and making yourself unappealing and masculine is a choice for safety. Men don’t want ugly. So seeing her grow past that too, seemed like a culmination of her safety and maybe by extension bajor’s as metaphor.

Maybe this is a stupid interpretation but I did not see kira queer, I saw her as a hurt person who was allowed to heal and that gave me hope. I’m sorry if this is not what you intended but Kira kinda saved me from giving up and I want to thank you (and all involved) for her. Sorry this isn’t super well organized thoughts. I really am grateful for all of ds9. It was a very good show.

Without getting too deep into critical theory and Writer Intention vs. Viewer Interpretation, this is also a perfectly valid interpretation of Kira's character and it's yet another lens through which we saw her/wrote her, probably even the dominant one (and the one I suspect Nana drew most from for her performances).

Which is not to invalidate people who saw her as queer/repressed or people who saw her as a colonized woman wrestling with her ambivalence about her new, arguably more benevolent colonizers, or people who saw her as a person of faith struggling to see past her religious prejudices, or people who saw her as a terrorist trying to overcome her past sins.

Over 172 episodes, multiple writers wrote her thinking about different things. Sometimes the very same writers would draw from different inspirations from episode to episode or scene to scene or even line of dialogue to line of dialogue. And of course, Nana and the various directors would bring their own takes to every moment.

All of which, IMHO, helped make her a terrific character.

Also thank you for the kind words and I'm glad we helped! LLAP.

#ask me anything #tv writing #ask me stuff #ds9 #star trek #star trek ds9 #deep space nine #star trek deep space nine #deep space 9 #star trek deep space 9

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fumifooms · 8 months

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Laimar crumbs

I wanted to compile all my laimar/marios crumbs to be able to look back at them whenever~ These are CRUMBS and I’m not arguing that all these moments were intended romantically, I have my shipping goggles on and picking every moment I think is meaningful and shippy for these two. I'm probably gonna have to split this in parts because it's gonna get long. Part 2 link

Content warning: spoilers for ALL of the Dungeon Meshi manga! Also blood & corpses in passing

They are so repressed aghhhh. I could go on forever about how Marcille is special to Laios because she was Falin’s first friend and was the only one to follow him into the dungeon for Falin and not the job, how from the get go they were linked by something more than work and that made him feel more comfortable with her. But my Laimar thesis is essentially: they are so sickeningly-sweet domestic and complementary. Their charm lies in their old couple "we’ll argue over what to have for dinner" familiarity with each other, having 0 filter. And also they’re funny together.

They’re so domestic… The way she touches him so fondly and easily and she helps him out of his armor 😭💕 How used is she to disrobing Laios that it's such a no-brainer action for her?

Which, touching is something she does easily without being embarrassed or deeper meaning, which is mostly due to the nature of being a healer beside her affectionate touchy-feely personality (that we can especially see when she interacts with Falin or Chilchuck), but that isn’t true at all for Laios, who we see is very awkward when it comes to touching someone.

Isn’t it so very interesting how Marcille being happy and not lonely aka her wish being fulfilled is the thing that makes Laios react here? The last thing he offers before Winged Lion goes like “it seems you’ve made up your mind~” in the next page.

I've already pointed out Marcille's smile being a special thing to Laios here but it bears being posted here again.

Laios has a "I want to learn more about Marcille face" that he does with no one else just saying.

Laios is always the one she instinctively clings to.

Imagine intimately knowing someone’s worst fear and having comforted them in a moment of pure naked weakness and that instance having had such a profound impact that it subconsciously affects them and their decision making. Laios truly was Marcille’s therapy dog. Pet the dog and fears will fly out

I am SCREAMING why is Marcille the one sitting right next to Laios?? His sister just got revived and Marcille is STILL sitting closer? She’s so right hand man coded they are so partners. I’m just saying having her sit right next to him at his right all the time is so <33 For a series like Dungeon Meshi all about eating metaphors and the importance of sharing a meal? To share that meal with her at his closest?? While Chilchuck and the rest of the party have their own lives in Laios' ideal world conjured up by the Winged Lion, besides Falin Marcille is the one shown to work in close quarters with him <3 It's his ideal world and he wants her to be there to support and help him daily, help... I’m planning to make a post on just that but for now:

They’ve been hinted to be complementary on a planning level so many times. Imagine the country they’ll make together fr!

Them both wanting to stay in the dungeon kingdom, looking like king and queen <3

Not Laios baiting Marcille with him finding her cute omfg.

Laios is the one who wordlessly takes charge of caring for sick Marcille and feeding her.

I could put the whole 96 bit of Laios being all sheepish asking Marcille to stay with him, going up to elfic authorities and telling them "Mine." with Marcille under his cape as his FIRST show of kingly authority (which could represent how Marcille is a good catalyst/motivation for Laios growing more comfortable in his shoes & role and being willing to truly chase something, instead of wandering and hiding his true self. She gives him courage). Honestly the first time I read it I was almost expecting him to propose when he dragged her into the forest holy shit. He's so cute and uncomfortable with showing affection or interest help, Marcille meanwhile the gossip romantic soul of the party being totally oblivious. More on this scene in part 2!!!!!

I ALSO could rant AGAIN about the whole Marcille is Laios’ succubus aka "most alluring form" thing but that’s a complex issue and I go in depth into it in this post

In conclusion they're soulmates both platonic and romantic no one can change my mind. They are so similar. They are so opposite. Laios flees from intimacy and she chases it. They are insecure. They kick ass. They unquestionably love each other, wether it be platonic or otherwise. They get on each other's case. They value each other's input and skills.

#dungeon meshi #laimar #marios #shipping crumbs #masterpost #fumi rambles #i do be a laimar truther but i got nothing but respect for any other shipper ofc. hi farcilles i love u guys don't kill me #some of these points i might repost separatedly bc some people highly prefer short posts. Gotta spread laimar propaganda

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lostyesterday · 5 months

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I have a lot of Star Trek trans headcanons, and I realized that there are some fundamental differences in the reasons why and the ways in which I picture various characters as trans, so I made this chart to try to categorize my headcanons.

This chart is specifically meant for categorizing trans headcanons, not canonically trans characters, which is why I didn’t include Adira, Gray, or Zero on here. The characters here are just the characters I personally like to picture as trans, not some kind of statement about what I think should be canon. Also, I personally headcanon some of these characters as binary trans, others as nonbinary, and others as just vaguely Not Cisgender.

“They're trans because of extensive narrative or allegorical evidence” means either that I personally think canon supports the idea of them being trans even if the writers didn’t necessarily intend for that to be the case (e.g. Seven being coerced by other characters to perform gender in ways she clearly isn’t comfortable with), or something about that character is metaphorically close to being trans (e.g. Dax having previously been a man). “They're trans because a thing they said or did once would make sense if they were trans” refers to things like Jules seeming a bit like Julian’s deadname.

The rows basically refer to whether I can plausibly imagine that character realizing that they are in fact trans, and whether I think it would make sense for them to be openly trans within the canon timeline (again, just my own subjective opinion).

#star trek tng #star trek ds9 #star trek voy #star trek discovery #star trek snw #star trek prodigy #star trek lower decks #lane posts

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starbylers · 3 months

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This is a response to the person who sent me an ask about their doubt last week, just hiding it below incase people don’t want to see that :)

For context this is an in-depth explanation of:

Why Mike’s monologue had to happen

Hi! And yeah of course I can try. I fully understand why the monologue is throwing you off and as someone who doesn’t believe Mike was consciously lying you’ve come to the right place lol. I explained a little more about why I think that in the tags here if you wanted to read more about that perspective. I’ll probably link to a few other posts in this aswell because it ties into a lot of stuff I’ve made Byler analyses about before.

So the thing you said about his arc being ‘does he love her or not?’ is what I think is causing the issue, because that isn’t Mike’s arc. You’re right in that that’s the question that is being posed to the audience at face value, but that’s not his character journey. I have a long post about this here but essentially, the core driving force of a character cannot be another person—Mike needs to, and does, have his own personal inner conflicts which the Byler perspective provides (pressure to perform being grown up which is made incredibly obvious to us in s3, and dealing with the tumultuous process of figuring out that he is not straight in s4—I personally don’t think he’s there yet though, I think the full realisation of why he’s been having all these problems with Will & El is still to come).

The perspective of ‘yes he does’ love her just because he said the words is the crux of the entire plot twist, because it’s the conclusion people inevitably come to when they don’t pay attention to the details. (I don’t mean this insultingly at all btw! The whole thing is very subtle and easy to misinterpret). And ST is all about details, something which has been told to us by the creators and is also obvious in their use of foreshadowing/hinting/referencing in all aspects of the show, not just Byler.

Mike’s arc didn’t finish a season early. This has even been told to us i.e. by David talking about how s5 will pay off big characters including Mike, and Finn himself saying Mike still has a ‘journey’ to complete, and also just the fact that we don’t have the final season means no-one’s arcs are complete because the story isn’t complete. The fact that a “love confession” occurred at the midpoint (s4/5 are basically intended as two halves of one story—post explaining this here) is what makes it extremely obvious that Mlvn is not the conclusion of this tale.

The monologue can probably be said to have many purposes, but here are the main ones to me:

It presents a solution that ultimately ends in disaster, and associates that disaster with Mike and El’s romance. The monologue is so, so important in showing that Mike and El’s love did not, could not save the day. That it wasn’t strong enough—further proof from the script here. It shows that El got what she thought she wanted, only to discover it wasn’t what she really needed. It may have helped save her but it didn’t help her achieve her goals (save Max, kill Vecna). Kind of a metaphor for their entire relationship lol. It’s also supposed to show that not even an ‘I love you’ can fix their issues—they literally don’t speak afterwards. I’m not sure El’s fully processed all this yet, but figuring it out is what’s going to drive her arc towards self-actualisation and allow her to win next season.

It furthers the miscommunication plot between Mike and Will. It’s an indisputable fact that Will’s lie influenced that monologue. (We can tell just by watching but it’s also in the script if we needed even more proof lol. Not to mention: the track that plays behind it is You’re The Heart. The episode is called The Piggyback. Will’s face is right over Mike’s shoulder when he says ‘I love you’—Will is integral to and inseparable from that confession). That is so important, and something we’re supposed to notice. The whole point of the monologue is who’s really behind it (aka who’s really behind the painting & words that drove Mike’s speech), because this sets the stage for the Byler confrontation next season. It’s literally the Benverly poem plot from IT, something we know the Duffers have taken inspiration from.

If Mike hadn’t gone through with it, there would be no movement forward in the story, we’d enter s5 with exactly the same plot we just watched in s4—Mike trying to say he loves his girlfriend for the literal third season in a row. It’s boring, it’s not good entertainment. Mike finally saying it (and yet there still being problems between them & it occurring under questionable circumstances) pushes development in the narrative, sets up new conflict for the next season. Or, if Mlvn had decided to break up because of Mike not saying it in s4, that would’ve led to Byler becoming painfully obvious and ruining the twist they’ve been setting up for literal seasons. Everyone knows Will loves Mike, and if Mlvn broke up in that same season the entire audience would see the ending of the show coming from a mile away. Remember, Byler is being written as a plot twist. It’s very likely tied up with the supernatural plot too.

The content of the monologue itself is supposed to demonstrate precisely why Mlvn are finished, why they don’t work, and should raise people’s eyebrows about the legitimacy of Mike’s “confession”. Like you said…he remembered her t-shirt lol. It’s impersonal, nothing about why he loves her or what he loves about her; he literally, proveably, lies in it and anyone can verify that by watching s1; and he makes comparisons to superheroes which is the exact opposite of what El needs (her whole issue is thinking she’s either the monster or the superhero, when what she really needs is to stop thinking in such a binary, and learn to be El the teenage girl, the sister, the daughter, the friend, the human being, and find her power in that).

And something else they purposefully do this season is give us examples of other love confessions to contrast and show how ingenuine Mike’s really is: Jancy & Will (not my original post! I just expanded on op’s point).

Now as I said before I don’t think Mike intentionally lied. My opinion is that he knows deep down something is not right with their relationship and that he doesn’t feel how he should, but after Will’s speech and encouragement he choses to believe that he can love her, that he can be what she needs (except it’s not what she needs, it’s what Will needs lol). So not lying, but the monologue is basically a desperate attempt to a) grasp at straightness and b) save her life. He’s in denial, and also terrified of her dying. Very bad combo.

So yeah there’s my reasoning :) what you were saying about the potential of a familial ‘I love you’ is true, yeah it could’ve ended the plot line. But that’s the kind of thing that should be a conclusion to the entire story, something that occurs right before victory not disaster. Because then what would the implication be? That El’s family’s love isn’t enough for her to save the world?

And the way they will explain the monologue is so simple. It’s Will. It’s Will’s feelings that inspired Mike. All that needs to happen is for Mike to realise that, and the audience will realise it along with him. Mike: I only said that because of how much Will loves me? Audience: Oh! So he doesn’t actually love her! It’s Will, Will is who he’s meant to be with! It’s a classic ‘the person who was right in front of them all along’ trope. Once people understand that, it basically makes truly romantic interpretations of the monologue invalid.

I can’t say exactly how the ending will play out—I expect we’ll see the cracks in Mlvn shatter rapidly as s5 progresses, maybe more arguing/demonstration of their incompatibility or El asking Mike to say it to her face and he still can’t, Mike and Will simultaneously getting closer and it becoming increasingly obvious that Mike is in love—but I’m choosing to trust they’ll do it justice. Mike’s monologue is just a key turning point in the larger story.

Also just one last thing, you said he seems sincere and I do agree but I think it’s because his fear in that moment is extremely real, and there are truths within his monologue i.e. that he doesn’t want to lose her etc. so that’s where it’s coming from in my opinion :)

#byler #anti mileven #sorry anon I meant to respond earlier but this week got hectic with those leaks lol #anyway here you go <3 #this is very long btw but I wanted to cover all bases

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thealogie · 3 months

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like genuinely what kind of author would A. take a such a stupidly hardline on audience interpretation when like. That wasn’t even an interpretation of the line it was just remembering and repeating it!!!! And B. why would you WANT your audience to only take your work as completely literally and on the nose as possible?? Like does he not realize how stupid it makes him sound to be like. This show isn’t saying anything about homophobia at all, only about how awkward all the other fictional creatures find it when angels and demons become close in an unspecified way that is beyond human interpretation but can also be summed up as bosom buddies 🤪

Literally this guy is always going “I won’t answer that! it’s for you to interpret” except if he woke up in a different mood then he’s like “this scene was NOT intended that way it’s all in your head. Thanks for thinking this exchange could have a deeper metaphorical meaning but I’ll choose the option that makes me a less good writer ❤️”

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bestworstcase · 1 year

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& as heart-wrenching as it is, i think ruby being able to say the words “i don’t want to be me anymore” is also like. it’s been true for a long time, and it’s awful, but before she can fix it she had to let herself see it, and to see it she had to say it. (and i have some nascent thoughts bubbling about neo being the one who ‘saves’ her from the cat—not in the sense that neo intends to rescue her, but thematically it does matter that the character who rips the cat off of ruby’s chest is the character that the cat then eats; there’s a narrative foundation here for ruby to return the favor by saving neo from the cat. or helping neo save herself from the cat, more likely.)

(<- the villain eaten by the story and the hero eaten by the story.)

and—while the allegory is not subtle at all—that it’s coming right after an episode that overtly rejected the notion of ascension being equivalent to death and portrayed wby as heroic in their immediate unconditional support for the paper pleasers’ desire to ascend… the relative locations of these two narrative beats isn’t accidental. the tree does not kill, it resurrects. the suicide allegory hinges on the deliberate narrative uncertainty about what ruby thinks ascension is: why does she drink the tea? what is she asking for? jaune imagines death, neo annihilation, but the paper pleasers say “we are delicate. our world is very fragile. we wish to become more resilient so that we can build something that will survive.” (<- ruby promised to serve atlas and keep people safe. her predicament is the same as theirs.)

is the distinction meaningful? <- a question i somewhat expect the next episode to interrogate. i mean the answer is yes, obviously, wanting to die is very different from wanting to change, but the thematic arc up to this point has been constructed by conflation of the two through the characters’ shifting perceptions; is the tree change or is it death, is it good or bad, does it kill or revitalize. irrespective of what ruby herself thinks, she chose to ascend and the tree answered her, so the threads will obviously get teased apart as we follow what that means for her. (and for little. true ascension vs whatever the ever after can offer ruby is something i’m really interested to see.)

practically speaking, ruby can’t lose her memories—or, not forever/not completely. (i do think a scenario where like, the tree takes her memories and then reveals them to her, a very literal change in perspective, is a significant possibility. what if you could leave ruby rose behind? what if you could see her through a stranger’s eyes? what might you think of her then? the thing about shedding an old coat is you can always put it on again. and if the coat is falling apart, of course, you do need to take it off before you can stitch it back together. how literal a metaphor are we looking at here.)

likewise i doubt very much that she’s going to drastically transform. (wardrobe change, reforged weapon, brushing off her bumps and bruises, yes; radically altered physical nature, no.) largely because her physical form is fine as she is—at no point has ruby been troubled by the limitations of her body—and the transformation she needs is spiritual in nature. if it ain’t broke… and what’s broken is her spirit, her emotional well-being.

which leaves, like, okay. you don’t want to be yourself anymore. what do you want to be instead? nothing isn’t an option. the tree cannot provide nothing. (that’s what the jabberwalker is for.) there needs to be something. you can’t think of anything? not one singular thing you want to keep? not even the tiniest spark of light in all this darkness? alright. turn around and look again. tilt the mirror, look again. what do you want? what do you really want, deep down where you’ve never let anyone else see? look at that. now look again. look for what’s true in this unreal place. if you can’t see what’s in front of you, look again. what do you want to be?

#rwby v9 spoilers #hm. hmmmmm

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gale-gentlepenguin · 6 months

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What is your opinion on the comments from the writers about the season 5 finale and the finale itself?

So I should say that the only comments I’ve seen (from the translation ) and this ( post )

My opinion on the writers and their commentary regarding the finale.

I do understand why they did the things they did.

Limited resources and wanting to utilize what they had.

I totally agree with their use of Piano Lucky Charm.

I think the fight the physical fight with Monarch and Bug Noire is phenomenal.

I can tell a Lot of effort went into planning this season out.

And as a Writer I can respect the references, nods, foreshadowing and jokes that were put in.

Fang using Kung fu is a hilarious image and it’s my favorite shot outside of monarch having a piano dropped on him.

People can say they like the ending, and if they do, awesome. I’m glad that you can enjoy this ending that I don’t.

So let’s have that put at the forefront

That is everything positive I have to say regarding the commentary and I will be going into detail on my ‘Problems’ below. And yes I will be getting angry.

(You have been warned)

I absolutely LOATHE their explanation on how they justify their ending.

Everything about it makes them sound pretentious and arrogant. They sound like they think they are being so clever with an ending when the ending is actually a fucking punch to the face of ANYONE that cared about having a resolution to this arc.

If the writers were so keen on having us CARE for Gabriel’s little arc. Why not take that Kwami’s choice special and replace it with a two episode arc of Gabriel, Emilie and co getting the miraculous? They can’t say budget because they could use flashbacks or the re-enactment from Representation.

And my goodness, the mental gymnastics it takes to say “Gabriel put down his other rings which means he lost” NO IT DOESNT. He is making his wish, he won. Why the heck would he need them after?!

“His wish is vague, so we don’t know what he wished for.” I DONT CARE IF HE WISHED FOR FREE ICE CREAM FOR EVERYONE ON EARTH! HE WON BY EVERY METRIC! It’s unsatisfying, it’s gross, and it feels all kinds of wrong to the point that my soul as a writer feels personally insulted.

The arrogant pretentious Pricks don’t even realize they left Ladybug in the losing position once again! She’s going to have to suffer the consequences of the wish. Not the person who died VINDICATED.

In the words of Brooke from one piece

“Death is never an apology.”

But she got the miraculous back? Yea, AFTER the villain got what he wanted. Adrien never finds out about any of this, Marinette is left gaslighting and hiding things from him, just like usual but now MORE people are keeping things from him.

All of this writing just end up with a cool final battle scene and then take a metaphorical dump all over it because their peak in character development is outfit changes.

The ending isn’t unsatisfying because it’s meant to be. It’s unsatisfying because it made 5 seasons of watching ML pointless.

And I didn’t think I could hate the finale more than I do. BUT THE COMMENTARY somehow made it Worse!? I don’t know how the f*** they did it.

But knowing their intent and knowing this ending was always intended makes VOLTRON’s ending SEEM serviceable. And yes I know how bad that sounds and I FUCKING MEAN IT.

#Gale’s thoughts #miraculous ladybug #ml critical #ml criticism #ml writer criticism #Gale gets salty #ml writing salt #recreation salt #I think for the sake of my sanity that’s the last I’ll be talking about the finale

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togglesbloggle · 2 months

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Evolution, Metaphor, and the Meaning of Gay Alligators

A few times recently, I’ve run across discussions about animal sex that are wrong in interesting ways. I don’t want to derail those conversations, and I certainly don’t want to call out anybody in particular, so I’m branching off here- but the most recent one was in the notes about the discovery (original paper) that most alligator sex is between two males.

Anyway, a not-uncommon element of these discussions is for somebody to frame animal homosexuality as ‘confusion’, particularly with simpler animals. The idea behind this isn’t too tricky: it proposes that the animal’s sexual instinct is functionally oriented towards (or intended for) heterosexual coupling and reproduction, but that the perceptions and processing power of the animal’s brain are too limited to reliably distinguish between the sexes. As a result, simpler animals of the same sex may occasionally copulate with one another by accident, as one of the failure modes along the way to biological reproduction.

If you are a card-carrying member of the Tumblrati, the word ‘heteronormative’ might well be in your brain already, and fast approaching your tongue. You might be building an argument about how sexuality has social as well as reproductive functions, that a lack of human imagination doesn’t prevent evolution from building towards homosexuality for its own reasons, and anyway human sociolinguistic concepts are a lousy fit for animal behavior. These are pretty good arguments, but I’m asking you to pause that line of thought briefly; it’s not where I’m going.

Animals confound us in an interesting way: their agency is without question, but their sapience is limited, and we struggle to imagine ‘what it’s like to be an alligator’ for that reason. What is it like, after all, to be conscious but not self-aware? So when we ask ourselves why an animal does what it does, we tend to use evolution as a way to paper over that gap, and say “well, the alligators must be having sex in order to reproduce and succeed as organisms.” Persistently, in odd and elaborate ways, we make this assumption that animals are themselves pursuing adaptive fitness in a way that’s much more direct than humans do, as if natural selection were a motive for animal behavior and not just an explanation for it.

This is the deeper and more interesting error that I’m trying to chew on. The ‘mistake’ theory of animal homosexuality assumes that animals are motivated to pursue biological reproduction, not because of what we know about them as individuals or as a species, but because of what we know about the forces that produced them. This assumption gets silently made in the case of alligator sex in part because we often make this assumption, it’s nearly our default way of thinking about these things.

I’m very sympathetic to this error! Biology and especially anatomy is our go-to example of purpose in nature; questions like “what are your lungs for?” have obvious (if surprisingly sophisticated) answers. Behavioral instincts are a little more complicated, but it’s still kind of the same thing- we can cogently talk about the reasons why we shiver when we’re cold, for example. And every time we have this conversation, natural selection is looking over our shoulder waggling its eyebrows at us. This kind of language can be very, very misleading, inviting a slip from “we <are born with an involuntary reflex to> shiver in the cold because it helps us survive,” to “we <agentically prefer or choose to> shiver in the cold because it helps us survive.” It’s practically designed to trip us up like this.

I think this happened in our language because of the theological fights around evolution in the early days of its discovery. You know how it was- Darwin, the monkey trials, all that nonsense. Natural selection accounts for biological diversity and the seeming-purpose of natural forms in a way that requires no conscious designer (or Designer), and so what might have been a purely scientific discovery also ended up blowing a hole in the social and religious functions that that sense of purpose provided- and was called upon, in some ways, to fill that hole again. Evolution got smooshed into a sort of theological shape, and now we have the sort of culture where the phrase “evolutionary imperative” feels like it makes sense to us instead of being an obvious contradiction in terms.

That theological shape comes back again and again when we try to speak poetically about natural selection, because it’s always lurking very shallowly under the surface. In these failure modes, we talk about natural selection in almost filial terms, a generative entity that hangs out in a workshop occasionally holding up new animals for our perusal; it’s hiding behind Kipling’s ‘gods of the copybook headings’, NRx’s ‘gnon’, Scott’s ‘Goddess of Cancer,’ and so many others. I did it a little bit myself, not three paragraphs ago! I called evolution “a force that produced them,” like it was some sort of creator-deity sculpting gay alligators out of clay. Like “what evolution wants” is something that a person can talk about…

Metaphors and language are hard, but I’ve been trying to think a lot lately about how to build a story about evolution in my head that doesn’t have this problem. Something passive, you know? Something that doesn’t have the property of being a designer, doesn’t tempt us into treating ourselves and the organisms sharing our world as if we were all agents of some Lovecraftian entity.

I’m not entirely satisfied with my answer just yet, but for now, I’m trying to let evolution be a labyrinth. It’s filled with twisting corridors and strange rooms, dead ends and loops, and terrible, deadly traps. It’s unfathomably large, and mostly empty- even though trillions and trillions of us have explored this maze, we’ve only really seen a small part of it, and out beyond the edges of our knowledge, there’s still mile after endless mile of quiet, dark corridors that have never known a footfall.

It’s not a comforting place, and even though we were born here, it’s not really home; it’s not something built for us, or one that’s especially concerned with our wellbeing. But the thing about this labyrinth is that most of the rooms have prisoners in them, strange and unfamiliar beings held in stasis and waiting for the door to open so they can spring into life and begin their own wandering. And this is a treasure of a kind, if you want to see it that way; not wooden chests full of gold coins, perhaps, but something new and beautiful all the same. And if that’s not reason enough to explore the maze, to go out beyond the relative safety of the room you were born in- then, well, there’s always the rumors that there’s a real exit, hidden somewhere among the twisting corridors.

It’s… not bad, I guess? The metaphor has its uses.

I think it does a decent job of capturing and illuminating lots of our moral intuitions; bioconservatism (and to a lesser extent, social conservatism) as a refusal to explore the maze, rejecting the insane dangers of exploration and the questionable rewards of the search and instead preferring to stay at home in the room where we were born– still trapped in the labyrinth, but at least alive, at least for a while. It shadows that position with the correct amount of irony, reminding us that human existence follows from a four-billion-year history of discovery, adaptation, and mutation by nonhuman organisms; it reminds us that the discovery of human beings came at a terrible cost for those who came before us. And importantly, it allows any given organism to be a thing-in-itself. Sure, life originates in certain places and certain patterns according to the latent shape of the labyrinth (though my metaphor isn’t very good at describing that shape…), but it’s free to act as it prefers, and live or die by those choices.

My hope, anyway, is that by dwelling on this metaphor, and stepping back from all the talk about creators and purposes and imperatives, you’ll find it easier to see what ought to have been fairly obvious to us: alligators have gay sex because they think the other alligators are sexy, and they want to have sex about it.

The questions that follow after, like “why do alligators find each other sexy?,” are also important! It is vital to learn as much about the shape of this labyrinth as we can, the better to traverse it safely, to explore it comprehensively, and maybe even to find the exit. But those are different questions, and conflating them can only lead to confusion. We must begin by acknowledging that we and our fellow-travelers on Earth do not exist for the sake of natural selection, and that any willful concessions to it are strategic, not moral. The creatures all around us- human and otherwise- carry their own motives and their own reasons within themselves. To live in the world as it is, we have to confront that radical pluralism head on, and not try to wipe it away by pretending these are all just masks over some domineering force of nature puppetting them towards inscrutable ends.

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princelylove · 5 months

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Have you ever written anything with Abacchio? I feel strong yandere vibes from him. Controlling and mean, not ready to compromise type of vibes. Obsessed yet detached. Would you be willing to share some headcanons with us? Thank you!

I think I did write for him once, but not a lot. In my head Leone and Guido are roommates, and Bruno, Pannacotta, and Narancia live together somewhere else. Bruno’s all “These are my sons.” but Leone and Guido see each other more like a “guy who I happen to live with, mutual trust.” kind of thing. Leone’s a bit of an outsider (Absolutely no one in Team Bucciarati likes cops, even if Leone is an ex-cop.), I think I’m still working out how I’m interpreting him.

Leone is a cold, mean man. He acts disinterested in you, he might even pretend you just don’t exist. But is that really how he wants to be? I think Leone’s temperament depends on how badly his depression is affecting him, whether you’re in public or private, and how comfortable he is with you in general. He’s… a bit moody, pun not intended.

A totally comfortable and reassured Leone would treat you like his savior. But he’s just too prideful to really admit that, especially if you’re not in a relationship, so he keeps that to himself. Those are his private thoughts, ones he won’t express until much later on in your relationship. You’re the only thing keeping him going, the thing that gets him up every morning. I said this in that alphabet ask request I did, “Leone loves to just sit and watch you. He gives you space, careful not to step on your metaphorical toes, and just sits quietly to watch. He won’t look away if you look over while he’s giving you that stupid, lovestruck stare. He’s so lucky he gets to witness you.” and I really do hold firm on it. When you’re alone, Leone’s face changes so much, if he’s in the mood to show you how utterly obsessed he is. He doesn’t mean to get in your way, please, continue what you’re doing. Don’t mind him.

And Christ he’s obsessed. Leone’s addicted. He doesn’t really… need to stare or even just interact with you, since he can just replay it. He pretends you’re annoying him, he wants to just sit there and listen to Monteverdi, what could you possibly have to say that’s more important than a classical genius? Shut up and eat your food, have Guido entertain you if you’re really that bored. The second you’re gone, though.. Leone’s all over his stand. He’s such a degenerate that he’ll get under the table just to see how you position your legs. God, you’re gorgeous. He’d kill to kiss your real ankle, or to drink from your glass at the same spot you did…

But Leone’s not at all ready to talk to the real you, so he won’t. He holds himself over for as long as he can this way- with placeholder you. He feels disgusting for it- piggybacking off of Narancia’s jokes and pretending your laughter was at what he had to say, holding ‘your’ hand over the table and pretending you’ve been in love forever, sitting in the place of whoever you were cuddling up to just to feel what it would be like… He really has no hard limits, Leone would replay you sleeping if he could find a safe way to do it. Does the guilt keep him up at night? Certainly. Will he stop? Never.

Quick digression, isn’t that such a horrifying stand in a captor/victim situation? You can’t hide anything from him since he can just use his stand and replay you doing it. I’d hate him as a yandere, I love to argue. I hit him with the old reliable “I didn’t say that.” and he replays me, in fact, saying that. That’s my Hell.

And what happens in the meantime, before he’s ready to be a giant mush to you? He’s a cunt. A total dick. He’s physically present (Always physically present, for a man that “hates” you…), but emotionally distant. He doesn’t want to be seen with you in the slightest. He goes out of his way to drive you away- he doesn’t want you to engage with him at all. If you sit down next to him he’s knocking his drink onto your lap. Won’t even apologize, unless the glass breaks. Then he’ll just snap at you to stay still. Doesn’t want the glass digging into that gorgeous skin of yours… huh? He didn’t say anything. He’s glaring at you because he thinks he missed a piece, don’t get all worked up. (He’s staring, actually. He just looks mean.)

It’s a constant game of push and pull. Incredibly mixed messages. How are you supposed to take it when he bumps into you with enough force to knock you back (When he clearly had room to go around), but also puts his arm around you so you don’t fall while taking the train? Leone has the audacity to directly command you, but not the confidence to consistently speak to you. He wants you, badly, but can’t handle speaking to you for more than a minute- and that’s generous. Once you finally crack him it’s like he’s an entirely different person. Doting and attentive, just not very verbally affectionate. He’s very handsy.

"Don't look at me like that. I'm busy, find someone else to play with."

#I'm still figuring out how I want this pretentious bastard to sound #yandere leone abbacchio #yandere leone abbacchio x reader #yandere team bucciarati #request granted

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girl4music · 6 months

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So I was watching ‘Once More, With Feeling’ earlier and I was paying more attention to stuff that was happening in the background instead of the forefront because I wanted to see the town folk being compelled to sing and dance and what craziness ensued. And I noticed Willow and Tara’s physical distance a lot in the background of the Magic Box.

The absolute contrast between Willow and Tara sitting around the Magic Box table so close together with hands and arms touching to such distance between them when they’re sat around it later after Tara finds out what Willow did to her the episode before… and what had happened earlier in this episode with them…

God the pain. This is what I mean about how there should be no physical intimacy at all between them while Tara is under that spell. Never mind just sex. Because you know Tara wouldn’t consent to it if she had had her memories. The fact Willow took away her autonomy just so she didn’t have to confront Tara’s disapproval of her use and abuse of magic and so she could continue to make love with a compliant Tara who’s emotional state was altered because of the spell… It really is a double-layered rape/sexual assault.

How could anyone do that to someone they claim to love? It’s fucking horrifying. Henious. Absolutely evil.

Especially since Willow knows the life Tara had had before with her abusive relatives. And as Tara mentions when she confronts Willow in ‘Tabula Rasa’ - what Glory did to her. I just don’t understand how Willow could do that to the woman she loves. And we know she loves her. We know she loves her more than anyone. And we also know she wouldn’t like that being done to her either because her own autonomy is incredibly important and she’d regard it as violation if someone just erased her memories about something that made her upset or angry or disappointed too.

It hurts. It really does hurt as a shipper of them and it honestly has to be the most egregious thing you see any of the main protagonists do in the entire show not just because it’s messing with someone’s mind, but because physical intimacy is involved in the meanwhile it’s messed with. I know Whedon did not intend for ‘Under Your Spell’ to be viewed like this but it is unfortunately how it has to be viewed because if we’re understanding the metaphors of magic = sex in Season 4 and magic = drugs in Season 6 then this is drug-induced date rape. The whole arc with them for the episode. Not just the spell. Not just the sex. The whole manipulation of altering or erasing someone’s mental autonomy to ignore, disregard or even take away their bodily autonomy. It’s the fact Tara cannot validly consent to any of it because if she could it would mean that she’d be aware about the deception and she wouldn’t allow any physical intimacy between them until she resolved her fight with Willow. So any physical intimacy or closeness whatsoever is wrong because it’s not something she would be doing if she had her memories and her true emotional state on it. Her autonomy wouldn’t be violated if she was aware about the fight and the way she felt about the fight. It’s because she isn’t aware why her consent to any physical intimacy between her and Willow is invalid.

I swear I feel like I’m the only one who realizes just how bad what Willow does is because my autonomy is very important to me the way it is very important to Willow. If it goes against MY will - then it’s not valid. And if there’s anybody in the whole show who should understand this it’s Willow. So that’s why it’s so bad. Because she wouldn’t allow it to happen to herself and therefore as soon as Tara said that it was a violation, it should have clicked with her. And yet… it just doesn’t.

How can you be so aware of your own will and yet so oblivious of somebody else’s will at the same time? 🫤

I think it goes all the way back to the ‘Will Be Done’ spell in ‘Something Blue’. She never intended to hurt her friends. It was just a mistake what ended up happening to them. But she wasn’t thinking about them when she attempted to have her will be done with magic. She was only ever thinking about herself. She’s a compassionate person but her mentality is “me me me” all the time. She never seems to look at a situation and not see herself and her own views there. And it’s like the more and more powerful she gets, the more selfish and arrogant and entitled she becomes.

And so we get to Season 6 and she’s saying she’s doing all she’s doing with her powerful magic to “help” and to “heal” and to “make things better”. And her intentions may be true with that but what happens doesn’t help or heal or make things better. Just worse. There is such a disconnect with her ideal and with her reality that it just doesn’t click for her at all that what she’s doing is wrong, is bad, is violating, … is evil. And she’s such a fascinating character to unravel all this with because she is a main protagonist. She is a Scooby. She is someone who you should be rooting for. Agreeing with. Condoning the actions of. But - how can you when all it does is just causes chaos?

I’m not saying she doesn’t care about doing the right thing. I’m saying that she doesn’t recognize that it isn’t right even when she can see the destruction it causes. And that is what is just so fascinating to me about her. That she doesn’t see it herself as wrong. How many actual villains start off that way in storytelling? That view their actions and choices as heroism even when it’s hurting and harming others? Even when it’s causing destruction and chaos and devastation? And how many of them see that it is? Before they’re ever the villain in the story… how many characters start off believing that they’re benevolent before they make the switch to “I am the evil villain”?

It really is no wonder why Willow Rosenberg is my favourite character in the entire Buffyverse when I get this much substance and depth out of her character.

#buffy the vampire slayer #once more with feeling #under your spell #willow and tara #willow rosenberg #alyson hannigan #amber benson #tara maclay #physical intimacy #violation #magic #autonomy #will #consent #characterization #character representation #character development #storytelling

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miikishii · 8 months

Text

To Hold the Sea | Ch. 8

main masterlist

series masterpost | previous chapter | next chapter

Synopsis: Something changes.

Warnings: reader experiencing self-doubt, romance (ew)

When you return to your apartment, Dazai is laying on the couch, something plays on the TV, but he’s not paying it any mind. When you walk in he looks at you, waiting for something to happen. You sigh and walk toward the kitchenette.

“Rough night?”

You look over at him, an aggravated look on your face,

“Something like that.”

“What happened?”

“I’m sure you already know.”

He gives you a sideways smile and a shrug,

“I just wanted to hear it from you.”

You escape to your room, rather, the only other room in the apartment that isn’t a bathroom. He doesn’t ask you about it again, but part of you wishes he would. You wanted to confide in him. You wanted him to confide in you too. After a few hours pass, he asks if you’d like to watch a movie with him. You agree and he lets you choose.

“We should probably buy a few more movies, I’m not sure how many times we can watch the same 5 over again…”

He hums in response as you slide the disc into the player. When you turn to the couch he’s barely left you any room, but when you walk towards the only empty space he opens his arms wide. You smile and fall into his arms,

“Thought you were just gonna be a couch hog.” he feigns an offended look,

“I would never!” he scoffs.

You don’t pay attention to the movie. Your mind is locked in on the way his arms cross over your waist, how he leans his head into the crook of your neck every so often, how it feels so loving.

“I was at Ango’s last night.”

“What happened?”

“I think I got tired of walking so I called him. He picked me up.”

“Nothing else?”

“Well, I was mad when I woke up. He just scolded me for drinking too much, said he cares about us.” Dazai gives a bitter laugh. A heavy silence falls between you and lingers for the rest of the movie, at least, the part where you were still awake. When you do wake up, you’re still laying with him, the TV now off, and Dazai likely asleep behind you. You go to move to your bed and you hear him stir.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you, go back to sleep,” you whisper. He takes a deep breath in and gets up, following you to your room and tucking himself in comfortably. You take your time to look at his face, even in darkness you think he’s beautiful. In darkness metaphorical and literal, he has always been beautiful to you. You wouldn’t lie and say you fully understand him but, in your own way, you know him, and he knows this. You think back to the two of you dancing in the living room. You think back to nights at Lupin. You think of moments you figure he was truly happy, even just a little, something you always hoped for him. You wonder if you alone are enough for him. A new kind of fear fills your heart. Without opening his eyes, Dazai reaches a hand out to your shoulder and pulls himself closer to you.

“Go to sleep,” he grumbles. Something strange washes over you at this. Who knows if it was what he intended, but his actions foster comfort within you.

“Are you glad to have me?” you half hope he doesn’t hear you.

“Of course.” His response is automatic.

“Are you sure?” he chuckles,

“When am I not? Do you need me to reassure you?”

“A little bit.” He clicks his tongue,

“I am glad I met you. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”

You nod slightly and finally lay down fully. When you wake again it’s morning and Dazai is still beside you, not asleep, but beside you. He stares blankly at the ceiling, thinking about something. He notices you’re awake and glances your way,

“Good morning,” he smiles peacefully. You close your eyes and nuzzle into your pillow,

“Mornin’.” he rolls onto his stomach next to you, his face close to yours,

“Dream of me?” he laughs

“You wish.”

“Sometimes I do.” You peek an eye out of the pillow fluff at this,

“Dream of me? Or wish I dreamed of you?” You raise a brow.

“Both,” You give him a playful thwack on the head and ruffle his hair,

“Shut it.”

“We should do something today.”

“Like what?”

“Dunno.”

You groan into your pillow.

“Go get something at a cafe, see the light of day for a while?”

“Mhm, sounds nice.” He rolls out of the bed and the sheets pull you toward him,

“Shall we?”

You lift your head to look at him; his hair disheveled from sleep and your teasing, his face a little puffy, the clothes and bandages he wears in a twisted sort of mess. You’re brought back to your thoughts and worries from last night. He is beautiful. The way the sun sneaks into the room through the curtains makes his eyes glow.

“Five more minutes?” you ask. He nods and walks away. You don’t have the courage to ask him to stay. When you get yourself together and meet him in the kitchen, the smell of tea catches your attention, he made a cup for you. You smile to yourself and join him on the couch. You drink your tea quietly and he asks you out to breakfast. The two of you get ready and walk to a cafe a few blocks away. He pays.

“Such a gentleman, aren’t you?”

“When I want to be, yes,” his smile evident in his words.

You both watch the people outside. Some making their daily commute, a few on their daily runs or walks, and couples wandering into the cafe you were in.

“A bit of a romantic place for you, huh?” you question,

“You don't have to think of it like that.”

“I don’t have to? So I can.” He smirks and sips his drink

“You can.” his eyes bore into yours with such gravity it takes you by surprise.

Butterflies swarm in your stomach. You take another bite of your pastry and he relaxes in his chair. When you met Dazai he wasn’t so… flirty. He loosened up a bit over the years as anyone does, but it was something that became more obvious with his friends. With you. It was something you were proud of.

“What are you thinking about?” He asks, still looking out the window.

“You.” You giggle and he turns to you, leaning his head in his hands,

“I hoped so. Where should we go next?”

“I thought the park would be nice,” he stands up and offers you his hand. When you take it he smiles and winks. As you walk he swings your hands lightly. When you comment on it he just laughs and says, “Am I not allowed to enjoy myself?” You roll your eyes and continue walking. Your day goes on like this, playful, relaxing; you feel the best you have in a while. You feel loved. From that day on, the days you spent in hiding were a little more pleasant. You realize how completely lost in thought you are when Ango pokes you on the shoulder. It’s funny how much comes back to you in the blink of an eye.

“Are you alright?” his voice is soft as he rouses you from thought.

“Oh, yeah… I’m fine.”

“I should get going now, it’s pretty late.”

“Yeah- sorry- Um, get home safe.” You blurt,

“I will, I will. Thanks,” he laughs.

You follow him awkwardly to your door and close it behind him. You haphazardly put your bowl down in the sink, more focused on the nostalgic feeling Ango resurfaced. You walk sluggishly to your room but when you look to your bed, it’s not empty like you’re expecting. You freeze, a little startled to see Dazai lying down and reading peacefully.

note: hehe I'm causing problems

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd x reader #dazai x reader #ango x reader #bungo stray dogs #ango sakaguchi #bsd imagines #bsd ango #dazai bsd #dazai angst #dazai fluff #dazai imagines #bsd dazai #bsd fluff #bsd angst

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doki-doki-lesbians-club · 3 months

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as someone who’s entire poetry style is based on a mix of natsuki and yuri’s, PLEASE ANALYZE THE POEMS TOO! ANALYZE THE HELL OUT OF EVERYTHING!!

You had me at “poetry” 😊

Okay, everyone! In this post, we’ll be analyzing Natsuki’s poetry in Doki Doki Literature Club! because she’s gay and i can prove it dammit

Well only be going over the poems that have a profound affect on reading her character, namely “Amy Likes Spiders” and “I’ll Be Your Beach”, and maybe touching on “The Best Place in the World” if I feel like it by the end of the post.

(Links to read the poems for yourself!)

｢Amy Likes Spiders｣

Let’s talk spiders… er, poetry! So to summarize, we are introduced to a hypothetical character named Amy, who likes spiders. We are shown that she is a normal person with a normal life, except the narrator of the poem refuses to be friends with her because she likes spiders. Simple, right? Spiders are gross!

Well, not that simple. The climax of the piece is a stanza towards the end that reads: “It doesn’t matter if she has other hobbies. It doesn’t matter if she keeps it private. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t hurt anyone.”

Oof, yikes, kinda harsh, don’t you think? It keeps going.

“It’s gross. She’s gross. The world is better off without spider lovers.

And I’m gonna tell everyone.”

Woahhh okay, took a bit of an intense turn from enjoying arachnids, huh?

This should be the first clue that the true meaning of the poem isn’t surface-level. Lines that seem intensely out of place or out of character are most likely intended to point you to a deeper content, such as I believe is happening here.

The entire poem, Natsuki has shown us in detail Amy, her life, and how this narrator treats her in response to her “liking spiders”. The narrator refuses to enjoy Amy’s singing, won’t let Amy touch her to help her when she’s hurt, and even fears that Amy might cause her friends to start liking spiders too.

So, what’s going on here? Why such a strong reaction to Amy’s interests? Well, this becomes more clear when reading with a queer lens.

Go through the entire poem (or at least the key parts) and replace “spiders” with “girls”. You get such lines as: “I tried not to let her touch me. She likes girls, so her hands are probably gross.”

“I always see her talking to people. She probably talks about girls. What if her friends start to like girls too?”

“It’s gross. She’s gross. The world is better off without girl lovers.”

Reads totally different, right? But it also makes a little more sense, doesn’t it?

In this context, Amy is a lesbian. Someone (the narrator) found out, and is being entirely homophobic about it, even if it doesn’t affect them at all. This makes the end of the poem more ominous and borderline horrifying.

“The world is better off without spider lovers.

And I’m gonna tell everyone.”

This can also be used to support a trans reading of Natsuki, as all of these same things can be applied to being transgender (though maybe in a more distantly metaphorical way than the easy spiders/girls swap).

Stylistically, it’s a very simple rhythm, no rhyme, with the repeating line “That’s why I’m not friends with her.” This simple repetition of pattern and phrase makes the changeup with “It doesn’t matter if…” all the more prominent, because it breaks that pattern.

｢I’ll Be Your Beach｣

Ahh the beach. Not my vacation of choice, but many find it refreshing, rejuvenating, and relaxing. That’s certainly what Natsuki seemed to have in mind for her poem she wrote from the one word prompt “beach”.

This piece is longer, though still keeps Natsuki’s tried-and-true simple format, four-line stanzas, and repetition not too dissimilar to common music patterns. The scene is of two people walking along a beach, basking in the warm sunlight, and letting the seawater wash their worries away. Natsuki can even be seen fantasizing about a kiss between these two~!

Though I don’t believe Natsuki to be the first person narrator of “Amy Likes Spiders”, I do think she is the narrator of this poem, as she then assumes the role of one of the two on the beach. Which means Natsuki is actually writing about her kissing this person! How intriguing~

Now, we are lead to believe in DDLC that the romantic poems written by Yuri and Natsuki are directed at the MC. However, that would be an odd assumption for this poem, given some of the things Natsuki mentions…

“Your mind is so full of troubles and fears” “The walls in your mind will melt away” “Let’s bury your heavy thoughts in the sand” “Wash your insecurities in the salty sea” “You’ll learn to love yourself again.”

By show of hands, how many of you lovely readers thought about MC when you read those lines? I hope none of you, because he doesn’t express these sentiments at all, let alone to Natsuki.

But how many of you maybe thought about Yuri? Or even Sayori? Ahh, a different story.

Natsuki is clearly imagining a time where she can comfort this person and remind them of “the reasons [they’re] wonderful” and even kiss them. This person clearly means a lot to Natsuki, and seeing them happier is obviously a goal. Now who does Natsuki say this is about explicitly…

Oh, of course, Yuri.

In Act 2, Natsuki gives MC a note that mentions she always wanted to be better friends with Yuri, and is concerned for her wellbeing (as we all were in Act 2). This seems to be a similar theme to the therapeutic scene in “I’ll Be Your Beach”, not to mention that the “beach” prompt was an assignment with Yuri! They were supposed to write from the same prompt, and Natsuki wrote this while Yuri wrote her poem, “Beach”. Wouldn’t it make sense that Natsuki might write some of these feelings she has for/about Yuri in a poem that was surely going to be read to her?

In conclusion, Natsuki’s simplistic style is excellent at throwing in emotional and/or sudden endings that really provoke thought about the poem itself, and its deeper meaning. This also allows for some thicker metaphors, since everything is encouraged to be taken at face value. I hope my breakdowns here have shown you just a little bit of a queer reading of Natsuki’s character through poetry! (Not to mention everything she does and says!)

I might add “The Best Place in the World” as a reblog later, Tumblr mobile is fucking with my formatting ahaha! Thanks for the ask~! I might do this for some of the other poems too if people are interested!

#doki doki lesbians club #mailbox #doki doki literature club #ddlc #ddlc natsuki #natsuki ddlc #ddlc poems

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mitochondriaandbunnies · 1 year

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Miami Vice S1E8: No Exit

Bruce Willis plays one of the sleaziest villains in all of Vice, directed by David Soul.

One of my favorite early episodes-- this is definitely a good candidate for trying to convince someone to watch Miami Vice. Fair warning that it’s fairly upsetting!

While Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky) directs 3 episodes of Vice, David Soul (Hutch) only did this one. PMG’s episodes are brisk, sarcastic, and laden with visual metaphor. This episode from Soul is dark, contemplative, and artistically spare. Both directors, however, use music absolutely beautifully, and seem to understand the almost visceral connection between Sonny and Rico, even this early in the series. It’s a shame we never got another Soul episode, but this one is damn good.

I love that Tubbs mentions that he is scared of machine guns, because it’s something that sets him apart from the other men in the department. He’s willing to admit his weaknesses and fear and isn’t as wrapped up in the I’m-the-toughest-cop-here machismo bullshit. His ability to be a little more honest with himself is almost certainly a protective factor in terms of why he doesn’t crash and burn quite as badly as the other characters over the course of the show.

Poor Lester the bug man. Lester is one of those early Vice characters who was clearly intended to be recurring, but he mostly spends the beginning of this episode trying to explain how his tools work while Tubbs is like “shut up I’m creepily looking at ladies through a telescope” again. Jesus, Tubbs.

Sonny and Rico are so fucking mean to Paul, the FBI agent who is supposed to be going undercover. Sonny jokes that the guy “must’ve taken drama in high school” and Rico patronizingly says that he “thinks they’ll handle it.” Then they proceed to send Rico, who has like 3 months of inconsistent undercover work under his belt, and whose Jamaican accent occasionally sounds Transylvanian, to do the job instead. Great work, boys.

God. Just-- the way Sonny is simultaneously truly, genuinely, and deeply concerned about Rita and wants to get her out of Tony’s grasp, and yet in the next breath he’s utterly manipulating her so Vice can use her. “Can you do that, Rita?,” he asks her, looking desperate and mournful, “Can you buy us some time?” It’s so goddamn bald-faced. You wonder if he justifies it to himself-- he has to make her do this to save her-- or if he just goes home hating himself that night because he knows what a bastard he was for even asking.

The sequence that follows is utterly wrenching. Tony offers Rita earrings, and when she doesn’t react with the level of excitement (fawning?) he was hoping for, he slowly stalks her down the spare, white hall and then slaps her so hard she falls to the ground. It’s a repetition of the same slow, white-backgrounded violence from the interrogation scene in Calderone’s Return pt. 2; it’s shot and framed like Tony is a horror movie monster; it’s set to the tinkly, synthy, shmaltzy strains of Stay with Me by Teddy Pendergrass. The intentional musical mismatch makes it all the more painful to watch; the age-old excuse that abuse comes from love or the fear of losing the victim’s affection falls apart when a love song is juxtaposed with such stark violence.

I think it’s very telling that Sonny’s call to Rita after he witnesses this (and, rightly, blames himself for it happening) is shot with him standing in almost exactly the same way at the exact same kind of payphone as when he calls Caroline in the pilot. In both cases, he’s calling theoretically to offer some kind of support or reassurance, but in actuality appears to need reassurance himself. He wants Caroline’s confirmation that she did love him once; he wants Rita’s forgiveness. Sonny’s ongoing issue with women comes from the same place as his issues with his self-esteem; he sees himself as a hired weapon at worst and a protector of the innocent at best. When he fails to protect someone, especially a woman or a child, his self-image starts to collapse. He doesn’t believe he’s good for anything else-- so in S1, he asks those he’s failed for reassurance that he is still a good protector. In later seasons, he just believes he really isn’t good for anything.

Sonny: Well, time for you to go to jail / Tony: No one can ever make me go to jail / Random government agent: Yeah uhh so we use him for proxy wars in the Southern Hemisphere, you know how it is with the US government and guns and cocaine and something something contras, so uh, yeah, he can go free

....but Miami Vice definitely is just about speedboats, right

I consider the ending of this to be the most classic/the “ur” Miami Vice Freeze Frame ending. It’s perfect, because like. Yeah, sure, there could be a denouement, but... why bother? There’s nothing that can be said that hasn’t already been said, and nothing that can fix what has happened that wouldn’t utterly undermine the themes of the story. It just sucks! The system is corrupt! They failed because they were set up to fail! You can’t fix the justice system from inside the justice system! This is the theme of the series in one abrupt freeze!

Okay. Okay. So. If Don Johnson is to be believed, he got Bruce Willis either the role or the audition for the role here. And he knew him because Bruce Willis was a waiter at a restaurant he liked. Not to put my tinfoil hat on or anything, but I find it utterly hilarious that Phillip Michael Thomas and not Don “hey boss, I need you to give a job to this hot talented waiter I know” Johnson has a scene here where he and Bruce Willis feel each other up in a men’s room. Look up photos of DJ and Bruce Willis from the 80′s. Look at DJ’s face and tell me I’m wrong.

#miami vice #miami vice s1 #rico tubbs #sonny crockett #s1e8 #no exit #martin castillo #bruce willis #my gifs

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phantomram-b00 · 8 months

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You know, as much as I would love to talk more about ineffable husband/wives/partner/idiots or aziraphale and Crowley. I do want to talk about something that involves God for once. (While stilllll giving me an excuse to talk more about Aziraphale and Crowley 🤭🤭) so spoiler warning ahead:

So, we know God. she’s kinda the focal point of the story, the footprint that everyone goes back to if you will even though we don’t really see what they look like. Sure you can say Metatron is the voice for God as stated in episode 4, season 1 “Saturday Morning Funtime”. So him plus the archangel in a sense speak for God and do whatever bidding she gives them without question, well exactly for Aziraphale and a Crowley; and everyone is quite ready to just shun them just for not complying with the norm. well I saw a post where it said that God isn’t cruel or unjust but rather put all including her most trusted archangels on a test. So I want to add on to their post as I do agree with their statement; it is evident all the way back in episode 1 where she described the whole baby swapping in the metaphor of cards; so I feel the statement is not far off. What I want to add on is, “what if, God intended Aziraphale and Crowley to be nonconformist the true champions that can truly save the world and are soulmates.”

Now, I’ve made a hefty post about Aziraphale as how he’s an outsider to his own side despite his effort is masking his true identity and beliefs. Though I didn’t touch on Crowley, so let’s change that: Crowley was a follower before he became his own leader. What do I mean? Well when we see Season 2, Episode 1, we are confirmed that Aziraphale and Crowley did met way before the Garden of Eden; and one of the first thing we do see if just how joyous Crowley is at his work with the stars. He’s cutely proud of his work that is until Aziraphale breaks the news to him and you see his walks breaking, he is absolutely devastated that his work is basically for nothing and while Aziraphale try to cheer him up, you can also tell this was the start of Crowley’s conscience that would lead to him falling. Now granted, we don’t exactly know why he fell, we going for implications which would most likely be him asking question. And one thing I did mention when talking about Aziraphale is that Heaven think any question regarding the almighty’s plan is treasonous, making you in their word a “traitor”. But what we can get from the implication of the fall is that if it wasn’t for Aziraphale, his conscience wouldn’t have even invented which is a parallel with the garden of eden as Crowley was the reason for Aziraphale’s conscience to be formed as when we get to after that he lied about the sword. I do think this can’t be coincidental, seem like it was dated all along me thinks 🤔

Now, I bring this up, because since we talking about the almighty themself, it could possible be that she wanted this to happen. I mean, if we look at all from season 1 as a whole; we see that all the angels and demons are quiet literally ready to destroy what they created. Eagerly reading to draw their swords or magic to fight; which is really bizarre how after all those years they’re blasé about the apocalypse. Now I’m sure everyone know the ending that the world got saved and they got punished for it; but not by God or even Satan. They’re punished by people of their own side. Which got me analyzing this show for the billion time: don’t you think that God would’ve punish them themself if she was truly serious about this plan to end the world? Or really, since the angels will do it no question asked wouldn’t she have made the ineffable husband/wives/spouse/partner/morons duo more compliant rather than having consciences? Now granted, it can very well be that she did authorize the punishment, I really won’t be surprised as this is the same heaven that gamble Job’s kids just to see if he still righteous. However, my point still stands, if they really wanted to kill earth or even her own creation she could’ve but she didn’t, she wanted this outcome to happen, she wanted to see how this will play out, this is her playing cards and seeing what strategy they’ll use and she got her answer.

Which let me mention when Aziraphale lied really quickly before I get to Job; now, Aziraphale’s lies is an equivalent of glass, you can see right through that he was lying to God and she most likely knows it too. Now I’m not going to say they would’ve smite Aziraphale for it no, that would’ve been over the top, but I felt she couldn’t scolded him like any archangels would’ve but she just did this:

Now, one thing about the almighty is that, they’re all knowing. So her just accepting that; is a bit fishy innit of itself. Especially when it come to a flaming sword at that, which is her taking an interest in Aziraphale’s story, as He’s the only who isn’t rigid or compliant no matter how much he tried to hide it. It only the archangels and Metatron who are judging and ridiculing him for it. Hell Metatron calls Muriel Dim, (which me and Metatron are gonna fight, no one called them dim, they’re angelic), the angels/Metatron are using their status and the fact they work closely with God to “regulate” the things. But the one thing that if you will, raise my eyebrows is that; we never hear what the Almighty have to say about this, even within her narration in season one, not once she would say anything regarding with Aziraphale and/or Crowley’s decision with apocalypse. This is all in a sense her writing their story and see whatever material Azirphale, Crowley and all her angels can handle; just so happen the way Crowley and Aziraphale are handling their material is what capture God’s eye.

Now to talk about the Job episode, yes. The almighty did make a bet with Satan to see if Job is as righteous as he is, by slaughtering everything and everyone but his wife. Because I guess just giving him a task to prove it was a snooze feast. Now, we did see Crowley killing the goat; until they were just birds. Same with the fact that Crowley turn the Kid into geckos instead of killing them. Now, we did see God talk to Job about whales and ostriches (which if that isn’t every single Bible story ever, I don’t know what is) but I feel given that at the end of the story of job, we see the kids come right back again…wouldn’t you think she would’ve intervened? Considering the kids aren’t dead, even the archangels have suspicions if it wasn’t for Aziraphale lying. Not to mention that, wouldn’t she have intervened when Crowley tempted Aziraphale to eat and they talk about the sides? Oh and let me remind y’all from the post when Aziraphale had a breakdown about falling, wouldn’t she had made Aziraphale become a fallen Angel for trying to save children? But she didn’t, she didn’t make aziraphale fall, she didn’t do anything regarding with the change they both did. While sure, the Almighty does win the bet since Job’s still righteous. But she also got to see the ineffable duo developing as they got their heart to heart with each other.

Which going into season 2, we got to the aftermath of season 1, we see that they relatively left the duo “alone” (by alone I mean they straight up abandoned Aziraphale while Shax actually check in on Crowley to exchanged what going on and beelzebub asked for Crowley help when it came to Gabriel). So it kinda hard to speak as this is now just the duos story with no narration, so, I like to think that just maybe, this is God’s taking a backseat and watching the show with us. She is watching the aftermath from season 1; maybe to see how their doing perhaps? Or to see what they’ll do now as there is going to be a sequel to armageddon, which mean we might see Jesus and most likely we going to see God/Satan make their grand appearance and I can’t wait to see that, it going to be insane. But let talk about that sequel.

So I mentioned about the ineffable plan that seem to be a niche to the story, it the one thing people bring up when talking about armageddon and it’s sequel. But, what if I tell you guys that the ineffable plans wasn’t armageddon? And that, the true ineffable plan is for Aziraphale/Crowley to save Heaven, Earth, and Hell?

“But Phantom don’t be silly, how can it be if the world almost ended in season 1?” And you’re right, she did almost let the world to die but Aziraphale,Crowley and Adam stop that from happening as Adam call out his deadbeat ex-dad. But, also as I mention, don’t you think she would’ve intervene and not let their lot speak for her? She could’ve easily visited Aziraphale like she did back at the garden of Eden to tell him to stop his shit or visited Crowley to stop his shit, but again she didn’t, and as the post say the almighty want to see justice to be done, she want to see who would protect the sacred creations she work so hard for for her people. She want to see what just who would “dare” to save everything even if it mean to doubt her plan, so maybe she calls armageddon the ineffable plan to cover up what the true ineffable plan is: to save all in the name of justice. And while the archangel listen and is willing to go through the “ineffable plan”; Aziraphale and Crowley are indirectly completing the true ineffable plan, her two creation whom are the only one with conscience are doing what a true angels/hero should do: protect and defend. And they are definitely going to be rewarded and recognize for saving humanity and listening to their heart rather than complying just because “it is what it is”.

Now the soulmates part, look I know season 2 had us all in tears. Trust me. I’ve been crying since the beginning of august because of it. I’ve been reading fanfic to cope. But I’m telling you, it not a divorce, because you know what, I have a feeling the almighty ships these two morons as much as the next person. Because, she had plenty of times to smite them or if you will, punish them. She have that power to do so, she did it with Adam and Eve; she has it in them, but she didn’t. And I think, this was what is meant to be, Aziraphale was meant to meet Crowley (or whatever his angelic name was suppose to be), he was meant to meet him again in garden of Eden, he was meant to befriend Crowley, to spend six thousand years with him and fall in love with him just as it was meant for Crowley to protect, to talk to him and love him in return. While yes, they would be considered star-crossed lovers but I don’t think it doomed, she the biggest shipper since they never try stopping it, she never tried to break them apart, and above all never disapproves of them. It just that archangels/metatron are so corrupted with their self righteousness that they misconstrue anything in the name of the lord which you can say is a great way to depict toxicity with religious as we see that Aziraphale truly suffered in the hand of the side that is suppose to true all equally but excludes him for being different, so having Crowley be the only person that never judge Aziraphale but instead indulge and supports it with him mean that these two were created with the image of them fitting with each other like a puzzle pieces. She have plans for them for sure, this isn’t over for them; it might ended on a painful note as metatron got what he wanted, Aziraphale’s masking again and Crowley lost the one thing that light up the dark by the end of the tunnel. But I’m sure, she will give them an happily ever after and that there not star-crossed, they’re not doomed, they never had and never will.

I guess thank for coming to my tedtalk? Sorry for my rambling, I just realize not a lot talk about the almighty. I get why as she a footprint to the story and that the true starts are the ineffable lovers. This show have me in a choke hold, and this is just my excuse to talk about this. You are more than welcome to disagree or agree with me, all opinions are valid 💜. Hope you guys are having a fun day, and hope you’re feeling good after good omens. Because I’m still going through it lmao.

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